Amen. Thank you for tuning us in. I'm Darrell Bay. Service for Christ. As we get into our morning Sunday school lesson, Jesus makes me whole. I'm glad that there's no one like Jesus that can make us whole. As we get over into the wonderful new gospel of John chapter 5, verses 2 through 11 and 19 through 21, we'll see that Jesus can meet us in our deepest need, offering restoration and new life. Here's we get into the wonderful word of God, amen. We see that as our childhood days, one of the best things to do after eating was to get out on the front porch and to be able to fellowship, watch people pass by, do some whittling. And, you know, that was one of the things that most people would do back in the day. But when we look at the Bible, There were some places in the Bible that the porch was very, very powerful because the porch holds a very special place in a lot of people's memory. Where in our text, we look this morning and we're told of a place where there were five porches. And it seemed that for a select few, these porches were very special because according to the Bible, at a certain season, an angel would descend into the pool of Bethesda and stir up the waters. And when this event occurred, the first person that could get from the porch to the pool was healed. But while this was a blessing to the one person who could get in, it only held disappointment for everyone else who was desperate for the healing. Well, one day, as Jesus was coming back into Jerusalem, as the sick and all that were lying around waiting on the waters to move, Jesus passed through and walked on these porches. And what took place that day was a demonstration of his divine power to heal the body. But it was also a picture of his divine power to heal the soul. It was in these sick folks, and especially in this man whom Jesus healed, that we can see ourselves and our need for someone like the Lord to offer to each and every one of us what no one else can do. And so I'm glad This is what happens when you're on the porch with Jesus. Jesus can make you whole. And so as we look and realize at the distances of how people would travel from Galilee to Judea and they would go around going from Jerusalem to Galilee to the Pharisees, they would take this path and they would never go through Samaria. Well, when we look and realize that Every one of us there's no such thing as a self-made person no matter how independent a person may feel we all need the help of others to live and to be successful in life and even when we look to others for assistance there are some things that just can't we can't do for ourselves and There's this only one person that can help us and his name is Jesus Christ when we let him He meets us at our deepest need. Well, Jesus had traveled from Jerusalem to Galilee by going through Samaria at a well near Saqqara, and he talked to a Samaritan woman about living water. while others in the village placed their faith in him because of his conversation with her. Two days later, Jesus left Samaria for Galilee, and a noble woman in Galilee asked Jesus to heal his son, and Jesus healed the boy, and more people put their faith in him, and from there, Jesus returned to Jerusalem. And that's where everything begins to unfold with the wonderful story. And so, before we go any further, let's open up with a time of prayer. Father, As you bring us together today, Lord, may we hear your word and ask for your forgiveness for our sins and for your strength to walk in righteousness. Open our hearts and understanding to the message that you have for us in Sunday school this morning out of John chapter five. Help us to trust in your power to restore our lives. And may we see your hand in our circumstances and respond in our faith. Lord, I pray that we put on the armor of God every single day and we ask for your protection and your guidance in Jesus' marvelous mighty name we pray. Amen. All right, before I get into the Sunday School lesson, I want to invite everyone to be at our home church, Bethel Crossroads Baptist Church. We're located at 450 Iron Hill Road, Taylorville, Georgia 30178. We'd love for you to come and be with us on behalf of Pastor Keith Dempsey. And as you can, come and be with us on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock and morning worship at 11. Amen. I'm glad that I do a Wednesday night Bible study at 630. and so on Facebook and so if you can't come and be with us or if you're already at a church keep us all in your prayers and remember us as we all are part of the Great Commission for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because as a service for Christ, amen, as we come together I'm glad that each and every one of us have a part in the Great Commission, not for ourselves, but for Christ's servants of his purpose and servants in his love, that we can all fulfill the Great Commission in all of our capacities, in all of the local churches across the world. Now, as Jesus makes me whole, We look and realize that John's gospel is different from all the others, that basically his primary goal is not to give men a historical treatment of the life of Jesus. John's purpose is to exalt the person of Jesus so that men may believe on him and be saved. And in order to elevate Jesus to the proper level, John presents Jesus in a very new way in every chapter of the book of John. We look at these portraits of Jesus in John's gallery as we journey through John. And in these verses, Jesus is presented to us as the great physician. The kingdom of heaven is like a physician who became wealthy having discovered a cure for the fatal disease. And after some time, when he knew that he would not be living much longer, he decided to give his wealth to some people in real need. Well, one day he went out on the street and he found a man lying on the sidewalk, hungry, hopeless, and almost naked. And the doctor took pity on him and extended to him a bank card he said to him hey take this card it gives you access to a bank account with a hundred thousand dollars and you must make withdrawals every day for all of your needs and to help others as much as you can well the outcast looked at the card he looked at the um and he looked at the physician And he looked again at the card, and he couldn't believe anything the good man said. Could it be he thought that this stranger has gone out of his mind? He's angry. He grabbed the card, he threw it away, spat on his would-be benefactor, and he returned to his sidewalk bed. The doctor continued his search and he found a poor woman in equally sad situation. He made the same offer to her and said, hey, if you accept the card happily. But it did not go to the bank immediately because as the day dragged on, she got distracted by some of her normal problems. And so the very card that could have solved her problems, she basically attempted to find the doctor, but not long after that, the physician found another man in desperate need and offered him the same deal. The man took the card, thankfully, and was careful to keep it with him at all times. And wherever he went, he proudly showed his bank card and he spoke enthusiastically about the immense amount of money he had in his account. I'm rich, I'm rich, he would say. and have need of nothing, but he was still dressed in rags, still terribly sick, still dirty. And you know what? All of a sudden he was hungry and he still depended on handouts. Well, Whenever he said that he was rich, nobody would believe him because he lived just like he did before, except in the bank card. And another woman caught the famous physician's eye. She was in the greatest need of all, deadly sick, thin and weak. And the rich man made the same offer to her. Take this card. It represents all that you need and more. And you must make withdrawals every day for all of your needs and for the needs of those around you. She took the card in her trembling hands and saw her very own name on it. She thanked the rich man, and she went straight to the bank. She walked up to the teller, presented the card, and dared to ask for $100, but she could not yet fully understand the vast riches that were at her disposal. Well, the teller was a friend of the wealthy doctor and was aware of his offers, and she could see the woman's true distress and kindly responded, Is that all you need? You'll earn more in interest in the time that it takes for me to count it out than what you asked for." The woman in total disbelief then asked for what she thought was a staggering sum, $5,000? The woman rented a small apartment, bought food and new clothes, took a badly needed bath, and went to the rich physician for healing of her sickness as well as advice on how to prevent its reoccurrence. The woman began to live as much like a rich person as she knew how. and sought to imitate the only wealthy person with whom she was acquainted, the physician. Following the instructions given her, the woman went to the bank every day to make withdrawals, and she shared her wealth with others. And indeed, this little parable that we're going to be reading illustrates for us the truth of what Jesus desires to do for every one of us this morning. He longs to take us from where we are and bring us to where we need to be. And as we go through this passage this morning, we're going to have the opportunity to see the great physician in action. Amen. Because I'm glad that Jesus can make you whole this morning. Jesus can do for you what no one else can do. And so as we look and realize for the great opportunity this morning that we're going to get into the very first thing that we see that Jesus sees and knows when we need his power praise God and when we do that I'm glad that as we look and realize one of the very first things that we're going to see as Jesus met one man who apparently believed in the healing power of the water, Zabin. He had a health condition that prevented him from functioning with full mobility, and like the Samaritan woman at the well, that's earlier in the verses of John, This man misunderstood his greatest need. The woman thought that her greatest need was a drink of water. This man thought that his greatest need was someone to help him get into the water. But in both cases, they had met the only one who could help them. And I'm glad that in this man's case, he had been suffering for 38 years. We're not told if this man had been suffering from infirmity his entire life, or if he had acquired this problem later in life, but either way, this man was well acquainted with suffering. And as we get into the wonderful Word of God, we're going to be able to see and know when we need Jesus' power. He tells us in verse 2, now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool which is called in the Hebrew term Bethesda, having five porches. When we look and realize of this, we realize that Jesus made his way to Jerusalem in keeping with one of the festivals in verse 1 that we're not reading. The place Jesus visited happened to be near the sheep market. This particular market, people could see a pool of water that was fed by an underground spring. And in Jerusalem, Jesus encountered a man lying by the pool of Bethesda, and Jesus knew what the man's ailment was and how long that he had suffered. Jesus' encounter was no accident. In compassion, Jesus asked him, Will thou be made whole when we get over there a little bit later? Many times in life, we've all missed out on the blessings of God because we make excuses for our sins, our failures, and our situations instead of responding to God with humility. And so, I'm glad that as he's able to meet us and to make us whole. Life-changing encounters with Jesus may begin with a desperate need for help that no one else can provide. And so, according to Leviticus chapter 23, God instructed his people to gather each year for the festivals like Passover, like Pentecost, and like the Feast of Tabernacles. And he gave them instructions regarding the dates of those festivals, who could attend, and what they should do when they attended the gatherings. And God's people respected the festivals with their attendance and participation after they settled in Israel. Well, the festivals would continue to be important to the Jewish people. And John wrote that Jesus made his way to Jerusalem in keeping with one of those festivals. The gate may have been given the name because the sheep were to be sacrificed at the temple may have been brought through this gate. And the gate could have gotten the name also because of its proximity to a sheep market. But near that particular gate, people could see that pool of water that was fed by the underground spring and in the Arabic and in the Hebrew language the pool had been named Bethesda and the name meant house of mercy and so When we look at the word of God, we turn to Jesus in our times of hopelessness. Amen. And I'm glad that when we do, I'm glad that he's able to provide what we need when we look at the area that we're talking about. Praise God. I was there with John Hagee in 2008, and we were up on high on a balcony looking down into this area as it had aged through the time. that we looked at it. It looked rugged and it looked of use. But the Word of God says, and these lay a great multitude of impotent folk of blind halt withered waiting for the moving of the water. And so I'm glad that John gave attention to the disabled individuals there. And he provided only a few basic details regarding the setting in which the pool had been the centerpiece. and instead he gave attention to the people who had collected within the porches and John noted that disabled individuals had been placed there. Some couldn't see. Their blindness could have been due to the birth defect or it could have been linked to a disease that had stole their sight completely. Others lying near the pool couldn't walk and they may have been born with crippled limbs or disease. Paralysis had withered their weak and helpless bodies and all the physical disabilities had one trade in common. None of them could be cured with the medical treatments available in those days. The picture of pain, sadness, suffering, and hopelessness could not have been pifically graphic because none of those individuals could help themselves. Incidentally, more translations of the Bible omit the remainder of verse 3 and all of verse 4 because they do not have strong textual support. But as John continued to describe this sad scene at the pool of Bethesda, he pointed to one disabled man in particular. And that man had been suffering with an incurable disability for 38 long, difficult years. And so, And he says in verse 4, for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, troubled the water, whether so ever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And so we look and we realize that the misery and the hopelessness of these people, that they had been there for that time and knowing that if you're not the first one in that you couldn't get healed. How sad that we look and realize of this parable. But it tells us in verse five, and a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. And so he was disabled. He was a man. He was unable. to do for himself. He had to be carried everywhere he goes. He's forced to beg his way through life. He's totally helpless and useless to those around him. When I was in Korea, I saw men out on the corners with no legs and no arms and they were selling pencils left over from the Korean War when I was there. They could take a pencil in their mouth and hand it to you because they had no other way to do. What a picture of a sinner before God. Lost people are spiritually crippled and they cannot get to God on their own. They're helpless in a spiritual sense and if you're lost, you cannot pray, you cannot worship, you cannot truly enjoy the things of God because you cannot be used of the Lord for His glory and you cannot serve Him. You see, to be lost is a horrible thing. In fact, the reality is far worse than the picture. God's Word says that the sinner is dead. And so according to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, and so he was desperate this man just the fact that he was there at the pool an indication that he was desperate for healing. Here is a man who if the angel did come would have to try and drag his body across the porch to get into the pool and imagine the painful pitiful scene that the picture of a sinner I do not believe for a minute that anyone wants to go to hell. I believe that most people want to desperately get right with God, and I'm convinced that the most people want to know for sure that if they will go to heaven when they die. The problem with most is, is they're looking for a way other than God's way, and people seem willing to try any plan but God's plan. Well, religion and work support groups and all of the other things that go with it etc are all placed ahead of salvation through Jesus Christ. Sadly in man's desperation we often miss the mark completely and we wind up losing the only thing of value that we could ever possess our soul and so this man he was often disappointed time and time again that this man was disappointed when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been not a long time in that case he said to him will thou be made whole and so we see a sympathetic messiah Jesus is pictured as the compassionate savior shown doing three great works that prove this true. He's shown choosing the sinner according to the Bible's own witness, the great multitude. I'm glad that Jesus could have gone to any person in that place and yet for his own reasons, he went to this man. This is nothing but pure grace. In the picture of Jesus and his work and salvation, he passes by and he knocks on our hearts door. He reaches out. to us in love and he calls us unto himself. And when the sinner responds in faith, Jesus comes in and he works the work of salvation in our hearts and in our lives. And this is a work of grace and grace alone. After all, we've done nothing to deserve his love or his salvation. We have done nothing to earn our salvation and we have done nothing to even make God notice us. And yet he chooses to love us just because he is God. I praise the Lord for the day when he chose me, 1972 in the month of September. He could have passed by and left me bound for hell, but he didn't. You see, that morning service, I passed him by. I wouldn't go down to the altar, but I had a second opportunity that Sunday night and I would not pass it by. I was under the most convicting power of the Holy Spirit you would ever see. Thank God that he stopped where I was that night. helpless and broken by sin and he reached out to me and all I had to do was say yes. Now don't miss and understand me. I'm not saying that God had some handpicked to go to heaven and others handpicked to go to hell. No, I did not say that. All I am saying is that the sinner is dead in his sins until Jesus comes along and awakens the heart. with a convicting power of the Holy Spirit. Faith is the substance of things hopeful, the evidence of things not seen. And so you have to step out on faith on nothing that's in front of you and believe that Christ went to the cross of Calvary and hung on that cross and shed his life's blood as the sacrifice for your sins of your past, your present and your future. And so I'm glad that when he came by me, it awakened my heart. And then, and only then, can the sinner be saved. All are called, but listen, few are chosen. Because listen, you don't go out there and say, I think I'm going to get saved today. Uh-uh. You need to fall under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit of God. You ain't going to get saved just whenever you think you want to get saved. But listen, if you'll come as an humble sinner and ask the Lord to save your heart with that humbleness and Lord believe in your heart what you say as you step out on faith, then that's different. Here is a carrying shown for a sinner. Jesus knew everything there was to know about this man. He knew that he was crippled, that he was unable to walk, that he was unable to stand, and he was not able to carry his own bed. Jesus knew that this man was totally dependent upon others for everything that he had in life, and yet Jesus reached out to him anyway. What a picture of grace, praise his mighty name. Bethesda, house of grace, Jesus knows all about the condition of the sinner. He knows that we love our sins and that we cannot control our passions and that we desire the things of the world that gratify this old fleshly nature and yet he loves us still, praise God. Jesus refuses to look at man as he is and he chooses rather to see man as he can become through the power of grace. And so Jesus looks beyond our faults and our failures and he cares for us in spite of our sins. Isn't it an awesome thought that Jesus knows every lowdown thing that you and I have ever done and yet he still loves us? And that he knows all our evil thoughts and yet he loves us? That he knows that we'll fail over and over again as the years go by and yet he loves us? I say glory to God. Listen, what a testimony of the amazing grace of an almighty God. I'm so glad that God loves those sinners and praises his mighty name. Here he's shown coming to the sinner. I'm glad the greatest move of all that Jesus literally comes to where this poor man is lying and reaches out to him in genuine grace and love. And it is one thing for Jesus to love us and to do so in spite of our wickedness. However, it isn't until he actually comes to us that we have the opportunity for salvation. There are three ways in which Jesus comes to the center. He came as a sacrifice. The first time Jesus came, he came to die. He went to Calvary and he gave his life a repson for all sinners. When he died on that cross, he took your sin and my sin upon himself and paid the price for our redemption. Jesus suffered every agony on Calvary in your and my place. He became your sin and he suffered the awful wrath of God so that you wouldn't have to, praise God. Secondly, he comes as a savior today. This morning, when Jesus comes to the sinner, He comes as Savior. He comes as the one offering eternal life to all who will receive Him into their hearts and lives. Jesus is here this morning in this capacity. He desires more than anything else for you to be saved and for you to miss hell, and He knows that all there is to know about you and me and everybody else, and yet He still calls you to come unto Him. You, if you'll just respond in faith, he'll not deny you salvation. And thirdly, as Jesus can make us all whole, he comes as a sovereign. And one day, if the sinner doesn't respond to the gospel message and come to Jesus, they will find themselves facing Jesus as the judge. That same Jesus who has the power to save you today will one day have the power to sentence you to the lake of fire that burneth forever and ever. Oh, I tell you, if Jesus has not received his Savior, you're going to face him as judge. Please, please listen. Don't put it off. Don't put it off. If anything, take the opportunity God gives and run to him for salvation. Amen. And so the impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool. But while I'm coming, another step down before me. And so here Jesus asked the man, you know what, if he would like to be healed. And he responds by appealing to the flesh and tells Jesus that he has no one to help him into the pool. This man is guilty of the same thing that so many others are guilty of, and that is confusing the physical with the spiritual. Jesus came to offer him physical healing from a spiritual source, but this man still had his eye on the what he can accomplish. Even today, Jesus comes to the lost sinner and makes an offer of salvation. The common responses are, I'm not good enough. I can't hold out. I've been too wicked. It won't work for me, et cetera, et cetera. But the problem is, sinners are looking for a physical solution to a spiritual problem. And the sinner needs to be saved. That is something that no man can do for themselves. It takes the power of God, the convicting of the Holy Spirit, and the blood of Jesus to accomplish this for every sinner out there. If Jesus is calling you to come to him, then don't tarry. obey, come to him for salvation. And so I'm glad that we see the order that Jesus tells the man to get up and to walk. And Jesus just told this man to do something that he hasn't been able to do in 38 years. To me, this is an incredible command. All that was required on the part of this man is simple. Childlike faith. and obedience to the call of Jesus Christ. When the call comes to that sinner, maybe I'm talking to you this morning, in your sins, the only necessary response is faith. Jesus comes to men and women who have lived their entire lives in the grip of sin. And he passes by and he says, listen, get out. Come on, get on up out of there. Get out of that gutter and follow me. Men refuse because, you know what? It sounds too simple. It's just like the physician that came around with a $100,000 bank card. Hey, it is Jesus. Jesus, it doesn't require perfection. He is just, he just requires faith. Amen. And so I suppose that's why it's so easy for little children to be saved. They're used to depending on others for what they need. Mom and Daddy take care of everything, so it's easy for them to just to trust Jesus and to be saved. However, adults, they get to be a little different. We're so conditioned to make our own way in the world. We're taught to stand on our own two feet. And I believe that we need a dose of childness in our lives. And there's an outpouring that when this man responded to Jesus's command by faith, he was immediately healed and he was able to get up and walk. And the miracle required no input from the crippled man at all. All he had to do was get up, praise God, and walk at the command of Christ. Salvation works the exact same way. Jesus comes to the sinner to save him. And all that is required of the sinner is humble obedience to the call of Jesus. And when this obedience comes, the sinner is immediately and instantly made right with God, transformed into God's child, delivered from the wrath, made a heir of all that heaven has to offer. And simply because the sinner turns to the Savior in a pure, humble faith, And Jesus has the power to take any life that is broken and ruined by sin and make it over again. He is all-powerful, all-saving, and He's awesome. And He will lift you out of the affliction of your sin if you only come to Him when He calls you. We can turn to Jesus in times of hopelessness. Jesus can make you whole. And so, we look and realize that as He does, we see Secondly, not only Jesus sees and he knows when we need his power in verses two through seven, but secondly, Jesus meets our needs in unexpected ways. In verses eight down to verse 11, praise God. I'm glad that when we see that Jesus sees and knows when we need his power, we saw the command of faith. Get up, pick up your mat and walk. And there's an immediate healing that the man obeyed and it was instantly restored. And the challenge of that tradition is Jesus worked despite it being the Sabbath. It didn't matter to him. Jesus can make you whole in every time and every day of the week. Jesus works in ways we don't expect. Imagine the surprise of the man when instead of using the pool, Jesus just simply spoke and he was healed. Praise God, hallelujah. His ways are higher than ours and often beyond what we could imagine. And He reminds us to trust Him fully and completely, praise God. And so I'm glad that when we look and realize what Jesus wants to do, praise God, I'm glad that He can do something that no one else can ever do. And I'm glad that when that happens, praise God, He can give us the greatest blessing. Because Jesus may not answer our prayers in the way we expect, but he knows what is best. Are you open to letting him work in unexpected ways in your life? I'm glad that all of us, as we go through life today, we see, starting in verse eight, Jesus said to them, rise, take up thy bed and walk. And I'm glad as Jesus responds by commanding this man who has not been walking in 38 years to get up, pick up his bed and walk. The incredible, the incredible, because all that was required on the part of that crippled man was simply child like faith and obedience to the command of Jesus Christ. Praise his mighty name. And immediately the man was made whole and he took up his bed and walked on the same day was the Sabbath. Remember, don't miss the depth of God's love for you, but also recognize God's work on your behalf. The Bible makes it plain that this man was miraculously, instantly healed by the power. And if the Lord Jesus, this healing required exactly no input from the patient, Jesus spoke and the man was healed. And all that he had to do was get up and walk away. And when Jesus spoke, This man responded by getting up and walking as he was commanded, and Jesus expected this man to walk. Salvation works the same way. Jesus calls us to him. He saves those who come to him by his power, and the sinner, who before was incapable of anything spiritual and was crippled by sin, is now free to walk in a newness of life. You can't even get a prayer through, sinner. The only prayer that'll start out with you is, Save me a sinner. And once you get on first base, then you can be a prayer warrior. But ain't a thing. No other prayer you can pray for anybody else because you're a sinner and your prayer will go unheard except for yourself that you will pray and ask the Lord to save you. By the way, Jesus expects us to walk for him after we're saved. And so Jesus has the power to take any life that has been broken by sin and make it over again and to take any life to use it for his glory as an all-powerful, all-saving, awesome. And so I'm glad that he lifted me out of my prison of sin when I was eight years old, praise God. We look and we see that and immediately the man was made whole, took up his bed, walked on the sep, on the same day was the Sabbath, as it said. And so it goes on. By the time of Christ, the Pharisees had developed a system of 613 laws, 365 negative commands, thou shalt not, and 248 positive laws, thou shalt. Boy, leave it to them Pharisees to add to just the 10 commandments that God gave that they had to add 613 more to the bucket. Well, We see in verse 10, the Jews therefore said unto him that was cured. It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. And so when we look and we realize that Jesus can meet our needs in unexpected ways. Amen. I'm glad that as we go on, he tells us in verse 11, he says, he answered them. He that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk. And so I'm glad. that as we obey the Holy Spirit, the Lord can give us what no one else can. And so we recognize God's work on our behalf, amen. And so in that very moment, I'm glad that he can do for us. He can make us whole, praise God. The Jewish leaders didn't care about why the man carried his mat. Their only concern involved making him aware that he had broken one of their Sabbath laws. The confrontation, it's sad. that things like this happen. And so I'm glad that each and every one of us as we go through life today. we can realize that Jesus can make us whole. Jesus sees and knows when we need his power in verses 2 through 7. And Jesus meets our needs in unexpected ways in verses 8 through 11. But lastly, in our Sunday school text, Jesus gives new life to those who trust in him. In verses 19, 20, and 21, we look and we see the powerful word of God. Then answered Jesus, and he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do, for what things soever he doeth, these he also doeth the Son likewise." Now I'm glad that Jesus gives new life to those who trust in him. When we look and realize that today, after healing the man, Jesus was confronted by the religious leaders, leading Jesus to make a powerful claim about himself. And so, The conversation with that man whom Jesus healed didn't get the Jewish leaders anywhere. They still didn't know who healed him. And later, Jesus met the man at the temple and warned him about letting sin control his life. In turn, the man reported to the religious leaders that Jesus had healed him. They confronted Jesus and his reply infuriated them. He described himself as the son who had a relationship with the father. The close relationship explained the healing that Jesus had performed. And so when we look around, you can see God at work. Jesus saw the father at work and he aligned himself with that work. And Jesus did the work the father showed him. Jesus not only saw what the father was doing, but he joined him in it. He did not sit passively by. Jesus participated because his life and mission lined up perfectly with the father's work. And I'm glad that every one of us, that Jesus can make us whole as well. And so I'm glad that when we look around, you can see God at work. He tells us, for the father loveth the son and sheweth him all things that himself doeth, and he will shew him greater works than these that ye may marvel. We've got to depend on Jesus to bring the spiritual restoration into our lives. Amen. And so. I'm glad that the relationship between the father and son had been founded on their love for each other. Jesus affirmed the love that they shared as he replied to the Jewish leaders. And they came to him with their song, their long, long list of religious rules. And he responded to his testimony, the connection between him and the father. And it was grounded in love. And by sharing everything that he was doing with the son, Father and Son could work together in perfect unity. You know, I'm so glad that we can depend on Jesus to bring spiritual restoration to all of our lives. Amen. And lastly, for as the Father raises up the dead and quickened them, even so the Son quicketh whom he will. Boy, you know what? Every one of us, as we go through life today, we're able to do some extraordinary things with Jesus's help. And so one of the worst forms of blasphemy, as these Pharisees condemned Jesus, Jesus hinted at the amazing work in the future when he brought up the father's power to raise the dead. God alone had the power to give life. And the Jewish leaders believed God had the last word. regarding both realities. They knew that at creation, God formed a man out of the dirt with his own hands and performed the greatest miracle of all. And he breathed life into the man in Genesis chapter two, verse seven. And for that reason, they rested in the complete assurance that only God had the authority to give life and to take it. And at this point in the conversation, Jesus made a daring assertion. He told the Jewish leaders he had the same power to give life. He declared himself to be equal with the Father. And his assertion would be impossible for them to believe at that moment. And in that time, however, the Jewish leaders and everyone else would see for themselves that Jesus told them the truth. They would behold his glory and authority over death. and life at work by witnessing what happened to Lazarus. Jesus raised him from the dead and gave life to him in John chapter 11 verses 14 verses 17 through 44. And from that point onward, they continued because they did not believe Jesus. They condemned Jesus for making such a claim, and they refused to believe the truth that Jesus declared. And so When we look at Jesus' declaration of his unity with the Father, Jesus reflects the Father's works. The Son does nothing apart from the Father. New life through Jesus is as the Father gives life, so does the Son. And the promise of a greater works is Jesus offers eternal life to all who believe. And so I'm glad that through this wonderful Sunday School lesson, Jesus can make us whole. And I'm glad that God's timing, the man at the pool waited 38 years for healing, but Jesus came at the very perfect time. Don't give up on God's promises. His timing is perfect and he knows what you need and he knows when you need it. And I'm glad that the faith and obedience, faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. That was said by Martin Luther King Jr. You see, the man obeyed Jesus's command to rise and walk, even though it seemed impossible. When Jesus calls you to take a step of faith, will you trust him, even if you don't understand the outcome? Every one of us today, as I close out, trust in Jesus's power to restore, as the man at the pool didn't have anyone else to help him, but Jesus stepped in. Let Jesus surprise you. The man thought the pool was his only hope, but Jesus showed him a better way. Share your story of healing. Like the healed man and his testimony about Jesus, share how he has worked in your life with someone else. And so I hope and pray that as Jesus asked the man at Bethesda if he wanted to get well, if Jesus were to ask you that question this morning, What would he be referring to in your life? Just like the man waiting at Bethesda, we all have a hopeful remedy that we trust that can make us better. But what do you place your hope in? And when it comes to finding restoration, listen, I hope and pray that in your struggles, that as you find that restoration, each and every one of us, as I close out, I hope that you saw how Jesus restored a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years. See the struggle to meet the needs in unexpected ways. When we trust the Lord, his power to restore is unmatched and his love is limitless. And as I leave you today and for this Sunday School teaching, Jesus makes me whole. Remember that Jesus is always ready to meet us at our point of need. Let's close out with a power of prayer. Praise God and let the Lord do what no one else can do for us. Thank you, Lord, for seeing us and knowing us and loving us. and help us to trust you fully and to share the story of your restoration with others. Forgive us for the times that we've doubted. Give us the courage to follow you in faith. And may we be a light to those around us, pointing them to your saving power. In Jesus's marvelous body name we pray. Amen. God bless you.